MHC dismisses Election Petition against Jayakumar’s Perundurai victory

CHENNAI : The Madras High Court has dismissed an election petition filed by former DMK candidate Thoppu Venkatachalam alias ND Venkatachalam against AIADMK’s S.Jayakumar’s victory in Perundurai, paving the way for the Election Commission to proceed with a possible by-election.

The Assembly election results were announced on May 4. Jayakumar contested the Perundurai constituency as an AIADMK candidate and was declared the winner by a margin of 9,693 votes. Subsequently, after voting in favour of the TVK government, Jayakumar resigned as MLA and joined the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK).

Meanwhile, Thoppu Venkatachalam, who contested the election from the constituency as a DMK candidate, filed an election petition before the Madras High Court challenging Jayakumar’s victory. Jayakumar subsequently filed a petition seeking dismissal of the election petition.

Hearing the petition, Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy observed that no cause of action had been disclosed in the election petition filed by Thoppu Venkatachalam. Accordingly, the judge allowed Jayakumar’s petition and dismissed the election petition filed by Venkatachalam.

The rejection is significant as Perundurai is among the five constituencies where the Chief Justice Division Bench of the Madras High Court had restrained the Election Commission from conducting or announcing by-elections until the related election petitions are disposed of. It may be noted that Venkatachalam recently quit the DMK.